Home Secretary Theresa May reiterates plan to make Police Federation come under FOI

Theresa May has reiterated her plans to make the Police Federation subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

At the Federation’s annual conference, today, she said that she intends to bring the group under the scope of the transparency law.

She said: “And where it is the responsibility of the Home Office to deliver change, I will make sure change is delivered. I will, for example, bring forward proposals to make the Police Federation subject to the Freedom of Information Act as I said I would last year.”

The proposal was first announced in 2014, at the Federation’s last annual conference, where she said that different tiers would all be included under the Act.

“And I will bring forward proposals to make the Police Federation – that is, the national organisation and all the regional branches – subject to the Freedom of Information Act,” she said in 2014.

In February this year we contacted the Police Federation to see whether there had been any contact from the Home Secretary after her 2014 announcement and a spokesperson for the group said: “The Police Federation of England and Wales is not publicly funded, therefore the Government needs to bring in a change in primary legislation in order for us to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.”

I am a journalist and author. I am a staff writer at the UK edition of WIRED magazine and in 2015 my book, Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. I created FOI Directory in 2012.